The Constitutional Crisis in ECUSA (I)

“Recent changes made by General Convention 2009 to the Canons, in combination with some in the Church who want to establish a strong central authority under the Presiding Bishop, and the ego of the current occupant of that office, have pushed ECUSA to the brink of a crisis, from which it cannot emerge unscathed.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has already seized authority over the affairs of the Church which is unprecedented — and her usurpation of authority to date has for the most part not been challenged, or questioned. Led by its Presiding Bishop, ECUSA is in the middle of being transformed by a small group from within, and the average congregation and their clergy as yet have no awareness of the scope of the changes.”

– Christian lawyer A S Haley, who blogs at Anglican Curmudgeon, has begun what may well be a most enlightening series.

Gambling at General Synod

“…I’m pleased to say we finally reached a motion I gave notice of on the first day of Synod on the last day! After a bit of debate, it was passed unanimously. …

‘… Synod calls on all state and territory governments to reduce their reliance on taxation on gambling and asks all political parties to refuse donations from organisations which profit from gambling. …’

The last day of Synod also saw Sydney get hammered on the finances.”

Sandy Grant, Rector of St. Michael’s Wollongong, continues his General Synod blogs at The Sola Panel. (Other posts here.)

Church, constitution and creeping centralism

“As we continue to debate a number of matters concerning the relationship of the dioceses to the national church there’s an increasing sense that there are many here who have less and less time for Sydney, except when it comes to us opening up our wallet.

The background to this is probably worth explaining…”

– David Ould continues to write from General Synod. Today’s thoughts have been posted on SydneyAnglicans.net.

Sandy Grant is also posting some reflections over at The Sola Panel.

Out of Egypt

“On 30 January 2010 Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt announced that he was resigning from the standing committee of the Anglican Consultative Council…

Bishop Mouneer could easily have camouflaged his resignation in the way that people often do. He could have pleaded the burdens of office or the dangers of stress and ill health. He might even have said that it was time for someone else to take his place, and pretended that he was stepping down in order to give others a chance. He did none of those things…”

– from Gerald Bray’s Churchman Editorial 124/2 (Summer 2010) – on Church Society’s website.

Should Christians practice Yoga?

“Some questions we ask today would simply baffle our ancestors. When Christians ask whether believers should practice yoga, they are asking a question that betrays the strangeness of our current cultural moment…”

– Albert Mohler looks at the modern sanitisation of Yoga.

The power of proximity

“Already I’ve been struck by the value that General Synod provides for proximity. That is, it brings together some of the key players and leaders of all the different dioceses in the Anglican Church of Australia. We are together with time and space forcing us to deal with things we could otherwise put off for years or just ignore for ever…”

– Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, Bishop Robert Forsyth blogs on General Synod so far.

And Anglican Media Melbourne reports –

“The General Synod, meeting at Melbourne Grammar School, adopted a resolution asking the synods of all 23 Australian dioceses to consider whether the Anglican Church of Australia should adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant and to report to the Standing Committee of the General Synod by December 2012. The resolution asked the Standing Committee to report to the next meeting of the Church’s national parliament in 2013.”

General Synod days 1 & 2

David Ould gives his take on the first two days of General Synod, meeting in Melbourne since Saturday.

(Here’s the official General Synod site.)

How much has ECUSA spent on lawsuits?

A.S. Haley, The Anglican Curmudgeon, attempts to work out how much the Episcopal Church has spent so far on lawsuits and ‘disciplinary actions’.

No need for God? Mohler on Stephen Hawking

“Professor Hawking is out with a new book, and in The Grand Design, he, along with co-author Leonard Mlodinow, now presses his case against God — or at least against any role for God in the origin of the universe or the beginning of time. …”

– Albert Mohler responds to some of the claims in Stephen Hawking’s new book, ‘The Grand Design’.

(As the book may come up in conversations, it’s worth taking some time to become aware of the issues.)

Why the Adoption act should not be changed

“A private members bill introduced by the Hon Clover Moore to allow same-sex couples to adopt children will go before the Lower House of the NSW Parliament this week.

The NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally has allowed a conscience vote by Government MPs and the Opposition Leader, Barry O’Farrell has allowed the same for Opposition MPs.

The bill has been amended to exempt faith-based organisations from having to facilitate adoptions for same-sex couples.

Although Anglicare Sydney welcomes this exemption, it still opposes the bill in principle and urges all MPs to vote against the bill because it diminishes children’s rights.

The Adoption Act makes it clear no adult presently has the right to adopt a child. The Act is based on what is in the best interest of the child. Introducing a right to adopt is contrary to the whole adoption regime.

And allowing same-sex couples to adopt children is not a test of civil rights – upholding the rights of children to have a father and mother when they have no say in the matter is.

Anglicare’s 12 reasons for opposing the Bill were sent to all State MPs. You can view them here.

With this issue now upon us, I strongly urge you to write to or email your local MP and request them to vote against Ms Moore’s Bill, with reference to ANGLICARE’s reasons.

Children’s rights are precious – they should never be a political football for others.”

– Peter Kell, CEO of Anglicare Sydney writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

The Wind of Change: All Africa Bishops Conference, Uganda

“In February 1960, British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan delivered his historic ‘wind of change’ speech in Cape Town, heralding the end of Great Britain’s colonial presence in Africa. Fifty years on, there is a spiritual ‘wind of change’ blowing in Africa which promises to end the predominance of London based institutions in the leadership of the Anglican Communion and the current All Africa Bishops Conference in Entebbe convened by CAPA (the Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa) provides the clearest evidence yet of this change in the spiritual weather.

It must have seemed to Lambeth strategists that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s presence at this high profile African conference with an agenda dominated by uncontroversial humanitarian issues would be a golden opportunity to portray the Anglican Communion as back to ‘business as usual’ after Rowan Williams’ decision to invite the consecrators of Gene Robinson to the 2008 Lambeth Conference led to the principled absence of some 230 mainly African bishops.

If so, they badly misjudged the mind of the conference. After the first day, the public relations dream is threatening to turn into a nightmare and Dr Williams may well by now be wishing that he had stuck to being a merely virtual presence by video as at April’s South to South Encounter in Singapore.…”

– Read it all at SPREAD.

‘The heresy of Oakeshott’s hero’

“Your story says Peter Cameron was found guilty of heresy for supporting the ordination of women (”Uncompromising heretic caught in the national spotlight”, August 24). This is untrue.

I quote from the press release at the time… ‘The matters at issue in the judicial process have related to Dr Cameron’s view of the Bible and its authority…’”

– In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, two letters respond to yesterday’s story about the independent MP Rob Oakeshott. On the Letters page – near the bottom.

(Photo: Rob Oakeshott.)

Why aren’t ‘Emerging Adults’ emerging as Adults?

Albert Mohler writes about a significant shift in US culture (it’s also happening in Australia).

Related: The Spirituality of Emerging Adults.

Trivia served up for the twittering classes

“Saturday night will be the first election in 33 years that I won’t be behind a microphone for an election coverage. For the first time, I’ll experience an election party and probably turn to the internet for updates…”

– Russell Powell has some reflections on the coverage of the election campaign in his weekly roundup at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Also, don’t forget the resources for comparing policy statements at Australia Votes from the Australian Christian Lobby.

The Inerrancy of Scripture: The Fifty Years’ War… and counting

“Back in 1990, theologian J. I. Packer recounted what he called a ‘Thirty Years’ War’ over the inerrancy of the Bible. He traced his involvement in this war in its American context back to a conference held in Wenham, Massachusetts in 1966, when he confronted some professors from evangelical institutions who ‘now declined to affirm the full truth of Scripture.’ That was nearly fifty years ago, and the war over the truthfulness of the Bible is still not over — not by a long shot…”

While it’s never been quite the issue in Australia as it has been in the US, the implications of questioning the trustworthiness of Scripture are clear in this piece by Albert Mohler.

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